Pass Rush Missing.....

[NWNewell]

Some of you guys are a like a dog with a bone.

Can't give a decent QB time to throw.

Time to switch to the 4-3.

Our secondary sucks.

Find a credible bandwagon.


Before yesterday, none of you would have classified Tebow as a decent QB. And the Steeler's didn't either. The front seven were told to contain and collapse. They were not worried about trying to sack Tebow. You could see on several plays where Woodley or Harrison could have beaten the Tackle around the corner but they didn't want to loose their gap assignments. This was not a personal problem. And it's not a 3-4 problem. It was what the Steeler's game planned for. Stop the option, single cover the WR's, and force Tebow to make some great throws to beat them. And guess what, he did. I have to tip my hat to him. The first deep pass to Thomas and the first TD over Gay where perfectly thrown passes in pretty tight coverage (although if our CB's had good ball skills, maybe they break up those passes).

I will say I'm not fan of how much they over-committed to stopping the option and left the CB's on an island. They exposed themselves to the big play time and time again. And that goes against every fiber of DL and the Steeler's entire defensive philosophy. But hind sight is 20/20.

Ike F'ed up big time on the last play. No doubt about it. It was the worse time to make such a big mistake. But he has been a very solid cover corner for years. He just F'ed up. He's human. Our CB's had a solid year. At least 20 other teams would be happy to have CB's as "bad" as ours.

Harrison and Woodely both had 9 sacks and only played in 11 and 10 games respectively. That's not bad at all. And once again, Pittsburgh had the #1 overall defense, #1 in yards/play, #1 pass defense, and by far the most important category, the #1 scoring defense. But you are correct, DL and his 3-4 scheme are washed up and the personal sucks.

Please!!! Stop the nonsense!

This board has me more pissed off today that I was over the lose yesterday.

I occasionally return to this forum because I appreciate the insights of some, but the rest of you continue to drive me away.

[phillyesq]

are we seriously going to bash the 3-4 and act like the 4-3 is the answer???
We do this every year

This tired agenda has been around since the days of the Trib board.

Right now, the Steelers barely have enough healthy defensive lineman to run a 3-4. Premium pass-rushing DEs are among the most expensive players in the game, and also often turn out as very expensive draft day misses.

The Steelers would have to reshuffle almost everybody in their defense front 7 and bring in a bunch of bodies.

The Steelers need to retool the D, and have been working in that direction with the addition of Hood and Heyward. A new stud NT is needed and so is a young ILB, but the D is not broken. If Ike plays yesterday the way he normally does we are not having this discussion.

[phillyesq]

The D-Linemen were probably not instructed to rush Tebow...they were probably told to stop him from running for 1st downs...

Many times, it appeared that the D-line was focused on keeping Tebow boxed into the pocket. Also, with Hampton and Keisel going down early, it's tough to generate a pass rush with only 3 d-lineman playing the entire game with the thinner air in Denver.

[_SteeL_CurtaiN_]

Where the hell was the pass rush.. you cannot give a decent QB time to throw..

Rushing only 4...WTF ...he had time to eat a sandwich back there before he threw the ball
on some of those long passes.....Take the chance rush 6 or 7....put pressure on a new QB in a big game....

This will be Denver's short victory...they will be destroyed by Brady!!!!
I agree, with another post we would not have beaten Brady with
this team......

I thought Ben did great for his injury's.......

Sword

I think it's called holding...

[feltdizz]

At least 20 other teams would be happy to have CB's as "bad" as ours.

[Oviedo]

are we seriously going to bash the 3-4 and act like the 4-3 is the answer???
We do this every year

This tired agenda has been around since the days of the Trib board.

Right now, the Steelers barely have enough healthy defensive lineman to run a 3-4. Premium pass-rushing DEs are among the most expensive players in the game, and also often turn out as very expensive draft day misses.

The Steelers would have to reshuffle almost everybody in their defense front 7 and bring in a bunch of bodies.

The Steelers need to retool the D, and have been working in that direction with the addition of Hood and Heyward. A new stud NT is needed and so is a young ILB, but the D is not broken. If Ike plays yesterday the way he normally does we are not having this discussion.

Don't we have this message board to discuss varying opinions and different points of view. Assuming some topics are off limits for discussion would make this a very boring place to be. I think reference our defense and what happened this season: lowest sack total in years, lowest turnovers in the NFL and embarassment in Round 1 of the play offs should mean we should have a healthy and full and open discussion about everything related to the defense.

I would disagree that just because we got some young players on the defense that means everything will be OK going forward. I would also believe that just because one CB had a bad game all the other areas of our defense were OK.

[NJ-STEELER]

Going forward the Steelers will need to make a decision on how they want to apply pressure in the future. If they want to continue the 'traditional' 3-4 pass rush from the OLB, they'll have to decide if Worilds is a definate pass rush threat, or just a 'guy'. If they want to give him decent time to develop, the Steelers need to find pass rush from elsewhere. Maybe it's time to find either a Ngata style NT or a blitzing, big play ILB to replace Farrior? One or the other may be required. Both might revolutionise Defense in the NFL.

Or go to the 4-3 and load up with good ready to play defensive linemen out of college versus goin with 2-3 year conversion projects that may or may not work out. Seems to work for the Giants.

You won't revolutionize anything as long as Lebeau is the DC. In his mind hs "baby ain't ugly." Need to to get a feresh perspective and shake things up. A #1 ranking for a defense is meaningless as we saw yesterday. It's just a feel good illusion. The best teams left in the play offs, NE, Green Bay and New Orleans, are in the bottom half of the league in defense.

getting pressure from 4 guys while 7 drop in coverage...sounds good to me.

and i believe we have some guys on the roster now that could make the switch.

the last 3 defensive #1 picks. woodley even keuisel and mcclendon. the only guys i think wont fit are hampton and harrison. although he might be able to man the MLB for a year or 2

[NW Steeler]

Don't we have this message board to discuss varying opinions and different points of view. Assuming some topics are off limits for discussion would make this a very boring place to be. I think reference our defense and what happened this season: lowest sack total in years, lowest turnovers in the NFL and embarassment in Round 1 of the play offs should mean we should have a healthy and full and open discussion about everything related to the defense.

I would disagree that just because we got some young players on the defense that means everything will be OK going forward. I would also believe that just because one CB had a bad game all the other areas of our defense were OK.

Amen, Brother! Aside from vintage Polamalu moments, this was a "Splash-free" year.

[Eddie Spaghetti]

these are my favorite ovi threads.

[phillyesq]

are we seriously going to bash the 3-4 and act like the 4-3 is the answer???
We do this every year

This tired agenda has been around since the days of the Trib board.

Right now, the Steelers barely have enough healthy defensive lineman to run a 3-4. Premium pass-rushing DEs are among the most expensive players in the game, and also often turn out as very expensive draft day misses.

The Steelers would have to reshuffle almost everybody in their defense front 7 and bring in a bunch of bodies.

The Steelers need to retool the D, and have been working in that direction with the addition of Hood and Heyward. A new stud NT is needed and so is a young ILB, but the D is not broken. If Ike plays yesterday the way he normally does we are not having this discussion.

Don't we have this message board to discuss varying opinions and different points of view. Assuming some topics are off limits for discussion would make this a very boring place to be. I think reference our defense and what happened this season: lowest sack total in years, lowest turnovers in the NFL and embarassment in Round 1 of the play offs should mean we should have a healthy and full and open discussion about everything related to the defense.

I would disagree that just because we got some young players on the defense that means everything will be OK going forward. I would also believe that just because one CB had a bad game all the other areas of our defense were OK.

Of course the purpose of a message board is to discuss opinions. What I think varies from the purpose of the message board is to continually beat to death the same topic and to post purely to promote an agenda.

I noticed that you had nothing to say yesterday when the Steelers gave up 8 yards of total offense in the first quarter. But you couldn't wait to get on here in the second quarter to push your agenda.

After every point allowed by the defense, you pounce with your anti-Lebeau and anti 3-4 while pushing for a 4-3. Seemingly ever since the Bears/Colts SB, we've heard from you how the 3-4 defense is antiquated and needs to be replaced.

Yesterday doesn't bear that out. Yesterday wasn't the typical DL defense. Based on what worked in shutting down Tebow the last few weeks, the Steelers sold out to stop the run and played man coverage on the outside. Teams were beating Tebow by daring him to throw, and he hesitated. He seemed to take Elway's advice to heart. He pulled the trigger. The throw to Gay was in tight coverage. You can fault the Steelers for not adjusting more quickly on D, but it's hard to fault the 3-4 D or the initial game plan for this loss.